Carpe Datum

Berger Wars

News on the Sandy Berger Archive Scandal:
Berger "Cleared of All Wrongdoing"
(Image credit: Steve Jackson Games)

Huh. The big conservative theory over on Fox and among all the ConservaBorg bloggers is that Sandy Berger is some kind of treasonous spy trying to cover up for something they did wrong during the Clinton years, trying to keep the 9/11 commission from learning something horrible by stuffing documents in his clothes and stealing them from the secure National Archives. Berger's story all along was that he was just doing research so he could provide testimony to the 9/11 commission, and he was too casual and walked off with copies of things he shouldn't have.

He screwed up, but it wasn't a big deal. Still, he owned up to it, and he cooperated fully with the quiet investigation for over a year, until some Republican on the inside decided to leak the whole thing to try to embarrass Berger (and by proxy, John Kerry). Bush-supporters have been crowing about this for nearly two weeks now, without realizing Berger puts Bush to shame.

I mean, here is someone accused of jeapordizing national security (however innocuously, no one ever suggested he broke any laws) and what does he do? Unlike Bush, he fully cooperates. Unlike Bush, Republicans immediately begin an intense investigation, and it is reported all over the mainstream media (Bob Somerby over at The Howler has been all over this). Meanwhile, the Plame case continues to perk along, ignored.

Well, so it turns out Sandy Berger never took any original documents, didn't deny the 9/11 commission anything (the 9/11 commission said this when the story first came out, but that didn't stop the ConservaBorg from spinning a nice tale for the Moron American). In fact, he has been cleared of all wrongdoing:

President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger -- who'd been accused of stealing classified material from the National Archives -- has been cleared of all wrongdoing.

The National Archives and the Justice Department have concluded nothing is missing and nothing in the Clinton administration's record was withheld from the 9-11 Commission.

The Wall Street Journal reports archives staff have accounted for all classified documents Berger looked at.

Late last year they asked investigators to see if the former national security adviser removed materials during his visits.

Berger's lawyers said his client had inadvertently removed several photocopies of reports, but later returned them.

Well, that was fun. Sorry to disappoint all you nutballs out there, but Berger made a mistake and then, here's the part that is going to be tough for you to hear, he owned up to it, cooperated with the authorities, then was cleared. See what happens when you actually care about national security, when you act like a patriot (even though you aren't perfect)?

So, uh, anyway, about that whole blowing the cover of an undercover agent thing...? We're still all waiting for Mr. Mission Accomplished to get to the bottom of this whole thing, just like we're waiting for OJ to find the real killer. Thanks to Atrios for the link.

Posted by Observer at July 31, 2004 08:08 AM